Annie Lin
Dr. Murrell
10th Grade Advisement
6 February 2022
How Community Service Impacts Volunteers' Mental Health
Abstract
To investigate the impact of participating in community service on mental health, I designed a survey with 30 questions, which were classified into the following categories: demographics, well being, family and friends, stress, and work experience. Mostly young people (84 total) took this survey, and the results show that volunteering helped many participants become more confident, make new friends, relieve stress, and gain valuable experiences. Overall, volunteering benefitted mental health.
Introduction
Studies show that many people volunteer to give back to the community, to put their free time to good use, or because they feel that they have a responsibility to help those in need (1). Many people volunteer for reasons about helping others, without seeing the other side, or why it is good for themselves as well. In fact, there are also studies focused on the benefits of doing community service for the volunteers. One study specified that it helps teens gain valuable experiences, improve their self worth, and reduce depression. There are even physical benefits, such as lowering blood pressure (2).
I have been actively involved in community service since I was very young. I founded my own team called First Step at the end of 2020. We often get together to clean up trash left in public places or organize fundraising activities for charities such as the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the Salvation Army. Since the team started, we have grown from four members to more than 35. I have made new friends, improved my self confidence and self worth, and learned valuable lessons on leadership and organization. I was curious how people in my team and other people around felt about volunteering. Therefore, I designed this study to answer the question of how volunteering experience impacts their mental health.
Method
I designed a survey on Google forms with 30 questions covering different topics, designed to answer questions regarding how volunteering affects the participants’ mental health. The 30 questions were grouped into several different categories, which were demographics, well-being, family and friends, stress, and experience. Most of the questions had answers from 1-5, where 1 meant “strongly disagree” and 5 meant “strongly agree.” 2 meant “disagree,” 4 meant “agree,” and 3 meant “neutral.” Others were multiple choice or checkboxes. For optional questions, I marked them as optional to make it more clear to participants that they did not have to answer it.
Questions were analyzed using the graphs that Google forms generates from participants’ answers. For questions with checkboxes or answers on a scale of 1 to 5, bar graphs were used, and for multiple choice questions, pie charts were used. The graphs made it easy to analyze and compare responses.
Results and Discussion
Demographics
84 responses were collected in about one month. 71.4% of participants were 13-18 years old, and 67.9% were female. The majority were middle school and high school girls, because most survey participants were my friends.
For the participants’ frequency of volunteering, 32.1% of participants answered that they do community service less than once a month, while 23.8% who do community service about once a week.
Student participants were also asked whether most of their community service hours came from inside or outside of school. Most students said that they got most of their community service hours from outside of school.
When asked what type of volunteer work they have done before, participants were asked to select all that apply, and were given the option to add an “other” answer. 58.3% of participants have done community service related to helping the environment, because many of them are in my community service team First Step, which regularly cleans up trash left in public places. Many participants have also volunteered at food banks and fundraising events, because these are also activities that the team has organized regularly.
(Note: All options with one person answering were “other” options added by participants.)
Well Being
Participants indicated that volunteering does benefit well being. Results show that it benefits happiness, self esteem, friendships, and motivation. As shown below, most participants agree that doing community service made them happier.
Many participants made new friends through volunteering. 23.8% of participants “strongly agree” and 22.6% “agree” with the statement.
Most participants received compliments while doing community service. 34.5% of participants “agree,” while 32.1% “strongly agree,” adding up to 66.6% in total.
Almost half of participants feel that doing community service improved their self esteem. As shown below, 22.6% of participants “agree,” while 26.2% “strongly agree.”
The majority of participants feel accomplished when doing community service. 54.8% of participants “strongly agree,” while 23.8% “agree,” adding up to 78.6% in total.
Survey results also showed that doing community service is a meaningful experience. The majority of participants answered that doing community service makes their lives more meaningful. 44% of participants “strongly agree,” while 20.2% “agree,” adding up to 64.2%.
Many participants also mentioned that participating in community service helped them improve many qualities, such as leadership, time management, and empathy. They were given the option to choose all answers that apply, and to put their own answers. The most selected options were “leadership” and “people skills,” which were both selected by 67.9% of participants. “Empathy” and “work ethic” tied for second, both being selected by 60.7%. “Motivation” was third, with 54.8% of participants choosing this option.
(Note: the options with only one person selecting it were added as “other” options.)
Participants were also asked why they do community service. Like the last question, they were given the option to choose all answers that apply, and the option to put in their own answers. The most popular choice was that “volunteer work is important to the community,” which was selected by 67.9% of participants. The second most selected option was that they “enjoy helping others,” which 65.5% of participants selected. Because many participants were students, community service being required to graduate was chosen by 59.5% of participants, and community service “strengthening their college applications” was chosen by 54.8% of participants.
The last question in this category asked the participants whether they would like to volunteer more, less, or the same amount in the future. The majority wanted to volunteer more, or at least keep doing the same amount.
At the end of this section, there was an optional short answer question asking participants to list some words that describe how doing community service makes them feel. The most frequently listed words were "accomplished," "helpful," "happy," and "empathetic."
Family and Friends
When asked whether they like to do community service together with family members (parents or siblings), student participants showed no particular preference. The responses were distributed fairly evenly, with about an equal number of people on each side.
When asked whether they like to volunteer with friends, the majority agreed.
Stress
The first question in this section asked participants if they regularly pay attention to their mental health. 29.8% of participants feel “neutral,” followed by 27.4% who “strongly agree.”
Participants were also asked if doing community service has helped them relieve stress or not, and responses were fairly evenly distributed.
The next two questions were about how doing community service affects their busy schedules. Half of participants disagreed that service time makes them more stressed. Even those who answered that volunteering does make them busier, the majority believe that it is time well spent.
Regarding the type(s) of volunteer work they do, the majority agreed that it is relatively easy to manage.
Most participants were under higher pressure during the pandemic: 61.9% of participants agreed that COVID-19 caused more stress. More than half did less volunteer work during this period.
Experience
Personally, my volunteering experience has given me a clearer vision of what leading a nonprofit would be like and what I might be doing in the future, which is why questions in this section were added.
More than half of participants answered that doing community service has helped them gain valuable work experience. However, most did not have an experience that inspired them to choose a college major or career path. This is because many participants were in middle school or younger, and did not know what they wanted to do in the future yet.
Other Questions
Participants were given an optional question at the end of the survey, asking where they were on the stress continuum (3). More than half of participants were in the thriving-surviving categories.
The stress continuum
Conclusion
Most participants were either classmates or members of my community service team (First Step), therefore most were between 13-18 and female, and the type of volunteer work we do is similar. If I did this again, I would try to get more participants.
The most important conclusion is that volunteering does have a positive effect on mental health. Many participants said that they made new friends, received compliments, and felt accomplished, therefore feeling happier overall.
Another important conclusion is that some participants enjoy volunteering with family members and some do not, but most participants do enjoy volunteering with friends and made new friends through volunteer work.
Results also show that volunteering helped participants gain valuable work experience, but it did not affect most participants' college major or career path choice, most likely because many participants were grade school students and do not know exactly what they plan to do in the future.
Overall, volunteering has very positive effects on mental health and well being. I hope more people get involved to help others while also helping themselves.
Planning, Approaches to Learning (ATL) Skills, Learning Goals, and Reflection
Planning
Planning was one of the most difficult parts of my project because there was so much to do and it seemed like there was not enough time to complete everything. I did my best to stay on task and complete everything before the deadlines so I could finish the project on time. I made sure to check ManageBac regularly so I knew when the next deadline was and planned well. An important ATL Skill for me was self management, because managing this project, schoolwork, and many other things was difficult to do without getting very stressed.
ATL Skills
While doing this project, the most useful ATL Skills were self management and research, because my project was based on doing research about how doing community service affects the volunteers’ mental health. Other ATL Skills, such as communication and thinking, were also helpful because good communication with participants and my teacher were necessary for me to get things done before the deadline, and thinking about the website design and report were both very important to my project.
Self management was probably the most used ATL Skill because I needed to get things done before the deadline and keep track of my progress. Also, managing my time, planning to get things done before the deadline, and having time to edit and improve without getting very stressed was difficult. For future assignments, I will reflect on my experience with this project to help me manage my time better and more efficiently.
Research was also a significant part of my project because it was based on gathering responses from the participants. I had to find ways to get people to take my survey, analyze the responses, and put them on a website that was easy to read and understand. Making the survey was the most difficult part of the project because I had to go over and edit the questions many times to make sure they were easy to understand and not ambiguous.
Another way research was important is that after gathering the responses, I had to read similar reports related to mental health and volunteering to get an understanding of formatting this paper. I also needed to plan out the website and how to present the results carefully, making sure they are easy to understand and follow.
Learning Goals
My goal for this project was to learn more about how volunteering affects the mental health of the volunteers, especially in teens. I was interested in doing this at first because one of my goals is to study psychology in college, and I am also interested in volunteering and helping people in need. I came up with this idea because it was relevant to both psychology and doing community service. For my product, I made a website showing the results to encourage people to volunteer. The impact of this is a significant part of the project because encouraging more people to get involved in their community and help those in need is very important, especially during the pandemic.
Reflection
For my IB MYP personal project, I wanted to choose something that is relevant to my goal of studying psychology in college and also relevant to helping the community. Getting more people involved in community service is something that I have always wanted to do as well, and I wanted to make that a part of my project. The impact of my project is something that I wanted to make a priority, since giving back to the community is important to me.
Being quarantined also affected many people’s mental health and motivation. Personally, I was less motivated to continue working hard and putting in my best effort in online school. Even though the pandemic and being quarantined changed my life so much, community service was something that motivated me and helped me learn valuable lessons. Since doing community service had so much of a positive impact in my life, especially during quarantine, I wondered if others felt the same way.
This project not only taught me more about how volunteering benefits mental health, it also taught me how to do research and record my results in an easy to follow way. I was also able to improve at writing and presenting information on a website. Making the website was one of the most difficult parts of the project because the information had to be presented in an organized and aesthetically pleasing way. I had to go back and edit the website multiple times for it to look more put together and easier to follow. In conclusion, I have learned a lot from this project, not only about mental health, but also about research, communication, and writing.
Citations:
- Klug, Gϋnter, et al. “Characteristics and Motivations of Volunteers Providing One-to-One Support for People with Mental Illness: A Survey in Austria.” Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 12 Apr. 2018, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6061434/#!po=39.1667.
- Moreno, Megan A. “Adolescent Volunteering.” JAMA Pediatrics, JAMA Network, 1 Apr. 2013, jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/1674385.
- Emery, Katrina, et al. “Assess Your Stress–Where Are You on the Stress Continuum?” Assess Your Stress–Where Are You on the Stress Continuum?, accelerate.uofuhealth.utah.edu/resilience/assess-your-stress-where-are-you-on-the-stress-continuum.